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The Unbounded Conversation
Topic Started: Feb 11 2006, 01:17 AM (74,407 Views)
Cybrus
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STAY HYPED!!!
Seeing as how I didn't know who Rube was, I think you all can safely assume that the person in my profile is not Rube.
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WWEFootos48
Member Avatar
God
Yeah, obviously. I have no idea whatsoever who that is.
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Cybrus
Member Avatar
STAY HYPED!!!
(Insert 25,000 word rant on why you are a douche for not knowing)
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WWEFootos48
Member Avatar
God
I know I should know who it is, but

I DDDOOONNN'TTTT KKKNNNNNOOOOOWWWW!!

Tell me, please, before I hurt myself over it!
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Cybrus
Member Avatar
STAY HYPED!!!
(Insert 35,000 word rant on why you are a douche for saying you'd hurt yourself.)

(Insert random cheerleader telling me to get em)
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WWEFootos48
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God
(Insert 2 words corresponding to the name of the damn guy already!)
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L69
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I got it. Nebuchannezar the Science geek.
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Cybrus
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STAY HYPED!!!
I offer this as a hint
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L69
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I give this as a hint.

**Brandishes Baseball Bat**
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15 Shows
Aint cheatin aint tryin
Cybrus
Dec 4 2006, 04:47 PM
(Insert 35,000 word rant on why you are a douche for saying you'd hurt yourself.)

(Insert random cheerleader telling me to get em)

It's "tell em" not "get em", geez, know your stuff pal.

Anyway, this guy is some nerdy bitch that no one cares about. Therefore his name is obsolite.
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Cybrus
Member Avatar
STAY HYPED!!!
Just because "Tell em" is your cheer of choice doesn't mean my cheerleader says it too. :wink:

Quote:
 
obsolite

o-b-s-o-l-e-t-e. At least try to spell your insults correct, even if you aren't using the word correctly. How someone's name can be outdated is beyond me.
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15 Shows
Aint cheatin aint tryin
Cybrus
Dec 4 2006, 04:58 PM
Just because "Tell em" is your cheer of choice doesn't mean my cheerleader says it too. :wink:

Quote:
 
obsolite

o-b-s-o-l-e-t-e. At least try to spell your insults correct, even if you aren't using the word correctly. How someone's name can be outdated is beyond me.

Whosey......NO!
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Cybrus
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STAY HYPED!!!
I have no idea what that means. None.
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WWEFootos48
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God
Tell 'em, Neb!
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15 Shows
Aint cheatin aint tryin
Of course not. Let me explain:

A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Once stimuli make there way from working memory to long-term memory, they have been successfully encoded into long-term memory. Having an understanding of different types of knowledge is useful for a teacher but it plays a small part in the much larger idea of how long term memories are structured and organised within the mind. Educational psychologists currently subscribe to the idea of schema theory when explaining the structure of long-term memory.
Schema theory simply states that knowledge is organised into what could be thought of as a spider web (www.sil.org). Different types of knowledge are organised into different spots of a spider’s web, and these different knowledge modules all interact and connect with one another so that knowledge can be used with maximum efficiency. This theory has positive classroom effects in that educators can sympathise with how knowledge is structured in the mind. With this knowledge, educators can arrange classes to be structured in a neat and organised fashion that will allow for the neatest and most logical organisation of schemas. Educators can also be aware that each type of knowledge interacts with other types of knowledge, and hence when teaching a new concept (such as advanced motion physics) teachers will be aware that they can draw upon schemas already in the mind (such as the basic ideas of Newton’s laws of motion). Schemas that have already been encoded also play a large part in attention and perception. As has already been described, schemas play a huge part in the construction of new knowledge. Schemas should therefore be of extreme importance to an educator, in that they need to activate and use prior knowledge (existing schemas) to build new knowledge. For instance, a mathematics teacher would never consider teaching the quadratic equation to someone who has no knowledge of basic algebra. It is obvious that to teach new ideas to students, that existing schemas need to be thought about, and built upon in order to build up the best knowledge base possible. It is also worth noting that if well-structured schemas are not built up, then this lack of good long-term knowledge will adversely affect how students learn new concepts further on in life.
As well as schema theory, educators also subscribe to other ways of describing how knowledge in structured in long-term memory. Educators have realised that students regularly organise information into categories, technically defined as concepts (Chi, Slotta and de Leeuw, 1994). These categories help students to relate one idea to the other and hence works like schema theory in that all information is linked. For instance, English students would categorise nouns, verbs and adjectives amongst other things. Implications for positive education are that teachers must realise this and help students to categorise information successfully so their cognition is well organised, well structured and correctly understood.

Simple encoding processes (which have already been discussed) are good for constructing knowledge bases about simple areas, however for new information to be best constructed, complex encoding processes must be understood.
As detailed before, existing schemas need to be activated in order for new information to be best understood, and for correct perception to occur. It is therefore likely that for correct and positive encoding to occur in complex situations, that the same technique should be utilised. This is called schema activation. Educators should be aware of the idea of schema activation as a process, and idea that can hugely influence learning. Educators can use the idea of schema activation in all areas of classroom teaching. A primary school teacher could draw on basic multiplication schemas and relate them to long multiplication ideas, which are just being introduced to students. These students would find it almost impossibly difficult to learn long multiplication if the prior schemas were not reactivated (if necessary). An educator can bring prior schemas back into the minds of students in many different ways. Mind-maps, videos, class discussions and reading texts are many of these ways, however as dictated by attention and perception the way in which prior knowledge is brought back should be unique and creative.

Deep processing is simply when a student processes information that results in further understanding. Deep processing can range from self-generated notes (which the student constructs themselves) to elaboration amongst students (where student’s discuss the new information). The prime advantages of using deep processing techniques are that they encourage information to be encoded in a unique manner. Educators should encourage students to engage in these unique activities (such as group study during the year) to ensure that the students are encoding in the best possible manner. Educators should also monitor the encoding techniques that student’s are using, and should attempt to match students up with good encoding techniques to ensure that the best encoding is taking place. For instance, a teacher should not encourage self-generated notes in mathematics where mistakes are likely to be made, but should encourage it in history where these mistakes are likely to be less influential.

Encoding specificity (Tulving & Ulser, 1968) conducted tests that dictated that wherever possible, conditions at the time/place of encoding should be similar to that found where retrieval takes place.
Guided peer questioning is another process involved with learning that can greatly affect how things are remembered. The simple example of a student asking a teacher, or a group of students how something works (i.e. the student gives their own opinion) can often greatly enhance how much of the subject is remembered, as the encoding will often be more unique and memorable to the student.

Educators must be aware of the differences between recognition and recall questions, and their implications on the learning process. Recall questions are in the form of “Explain how the Haber process works”, whereas recognition questions are in the form of “Does the Haber process synthesize ammonia?” Educators can find use in this knowledge when teaching. If the educator is aware of the type of question that can be found in an exam, then they can teach their student’s accordingly. This is why English teachers tend to teach differently to science teachers, as the type of questioning that will be found in an exam is vastly different to the other.
Teachers should be aware that if they do not teach the students the information properly, even if the right type of questioning does come up, the recall/recognition would be very poor. Teachers must also be aware that even in the best of circumstances, retrieval can fail (Bruning et al., 2005, p. 108). Reasons for this seem to lie in poor encoding, and hence the importance of good encoding processes is emphasised in this point.

The processes and systems of human cognitive architecture are studied by educators extensively due to their obvious importance to the field of education. Knowledge of processes such as encoding and retrieval are just as important as knowledge of architectural components such as sensory or working memory, yet both are studied by teachers due to their overwhelming importance in improving classroom practise. Each field of educational psychology allows teachers to understand how information is going through the minds of their students, and once this knowledge is acquired, the knowledge can be applied to the learning process of students. If teachers did not have knowledge of these fields, chances are that education would not be anywhere near the level that it is at today and classroom practise would be extremely primitive.


A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Once stimuli make there way from working memory to long-term memory, they have been successfully encoded into long-term memory. Having an understanding of different types of knowledge is useful for a teacher but it plays a small part in the much larger idea of how long term memories are structured and organised within the mind. Educational psychologists currently subscribe to the idea of schema theory when explaining the structure of long-term memory.
Schema theory simply states that knowledge is organised into what could be thought of as a spider web (www.sil.org). Different types of knowledge are organised into different spots of a spider’s web, and these different knowledge modules all interact and connect with one another so that knowledge can be used with maximum efficiency. This theory has positive classroom effects in that educators can sympathise with how knowledge is structured in the mind. With this knowledge, educators can arrange classes to be structured in a neat and organised fashion that will allow for the neatest and most logical organisation of schemas. Educators can also be aware that each type of knowledge interacts with other types of knowledge, and hence when teaching a new concept (such as advanced motion physics) teachers will be aware that they can draw upon schemas already in the mind (such as the basic ideas of Newton’s laws of motion). Schemas that have already been encoded also play a large part in attention and perception. As has already been described, schemas play a huge part in the construction of new knowledge. Schemas should therefore be of extreme importance to an educator, in that they need to activate and use prior knowledge (existing schemas) to build new knowledge. For instance, a mathematics teacher would never consider teaching the quadratic equation to someone who has no knowledge of basic algebra. It is obvious that to teach new ideas to students, that existing schemas need to be thought about, and built upon in order to build up the best knowledge base possible. It is also worth noting that if well-structured schemas are not built up, then this lack of good long-term knowledge will adversely affect how students learn new concepts further on in life.
As well as schema theory, educators also subscribe to other ways of describing how knowledge in structured in long-term memory. Educators have realised that students regularly organise information into categories, technically defined as concepts (Chi, Slotta and de Leeuw, 1994). These categories help students to relate one idea to the other and hence works like schema theory in that all information is linked. For instance, English students would categorise nouns, verbs and adjectives amongst other things. Implications for positive education are that teachers must realise this and help students to categorise information successfully so their cognition is well organised, well structured and correctly understood.

Simple encoding processes (which have already been discussed) are good for constructing knowledge bases about simple areas, however for new information to be best constructed, complex encoding processes must be understood.
As detailed before, existing schemas need to be activated in order for new information to be best understood, and for correct perception to occur. It is therefore likely that for correct and positive encoding to occur in complex situations, that the same technique should be utilised. This is called schema activation. Educators should be aware of the idea of schema activation as a process, and idea that can hugely influence learning. Educators can use the idea of schema activation in all areas of classroom teaching. A primary school teacher could draw on basic multiplication schemas and relate them to long multiplication ideas, which are just being introduced to students. These students would find it almost impossibly difficult to learn long multiplication if the prior schemas were not reactivated (if necessary). An educator can bring prior schemas back into the minds of students in many different ways. Mind-maps, videos, class discussions and reading texts are many of these ways, however as dictated by attention and perception the way in which prior knowledge is brought back should be unique and creative.

Deep processing is simply when a student processes information that results in further understanding. Deep processing can range from self-generated notes (which the student constructs themselves) to elaboration amongst students (where student’s discuss the new information). The prime advantages of using deep processing techniques are that they encourage information to be encoded in a unique manner. Educators should encourage students to engage in these unique activities (such as group study during the year) to ensure that the students are encoding in the best possible manner. Educators should also monitor the encoding techniques that student’s are using, and should attempt to match students up with good encoding techniques to ensure that the best encoding is taking place. For instance, a teacher should not encourage self-generated notes in mathematics where mistakes are likely to be made, but should encourage it in history where these mistakes are likely to be less influential.

Encoding specificity (Tulving & Ulser, 1968) conducted tests that dictated that wherever possible, conditions at the time/place of encoding should be similar to that found where retrieval takes place.
Guided peer questioning is another process involved with learning that can greatly affect how things are remembered. The simple example of a student asking a teacher, or a group of students how something works (i.e. the student gives their own opinion) can often greatly enhance how much of the subject is remembered, as the encoding will often be more unique and memorable to the student.

Educators must be aware of the differences between recognition and recall questions, and their implications on the learning process. Recall questions are in the form of “Explain how the Haber process works”, whereas recognition questions are in the form of “Does the Haber process synthesize ammonia?” Educators can find use in this knowledge when teaching. If the educator is aware of the type of question that can be found in an exam, then they can teach their student’s accordingly. This is why English teachers tend to teach differently to science teachers, as the type of questioning that will be found in an exam is vastly different to the other.
Teachers should be aware that if they do not teach the students the information properly, even if the right type of questioning does come up, the recall/recognition would be very poor. Teachers must also be aware that even in the best of circumstances, retrieval can fail (Bruning et al., 2005, p. 108). Reasons for this seem to lie in poor encoding, and hence the importance of good encoding processes is emphasised in this point.

The processes and systems of human cognitive architecture are studied by educators extensively due to their obvious importance to the field of education. Knowledge of processes such as encoding and retrieval are just as important as knowledge of architectural components such as sensory or working memory, yet both are studied by teachers due to their overwhelming importance in improving classroom practise. Each field of educational psychology allows teachers to understand how information is going through the minds of their students, and once this knowledge is acquired, the knowledge can be applied to the learning process of students. If teachers did not have knowledge of these fields, chances are that education would not be anywhere near the level that it is at today and classroom practise would be extremely primitive.


A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Once stimuli make there way from working memory to long-term memory, they have been successfully encoded into long-term memory. Having an understanding of different types of knowledge is useful for a teacher but it plays a small part in the much larger idea of how long term memories are structured and organised within the mind. Educational psychologists currently subscribe to the idea of schema theory when explaining the structure of long-term memory.
Schema theory simply states that knowledge is organised into what could be thought of as a spider web (www.sil.org). Different types of knowledge are organised into different spots of a spider’s web, and these different knowledge modules all interact and connect with one another so that knowledge can be used with maximum efficiency. This theory has positive classroom effects in that educators can sympathise with how knowledge is structured in the mind. With this knowledge, educators can arrange classes to be structured in a neat and organised fashion that will allow for the neatest and most logical organisation of schemas. Educators can also be aware that each type of knowledge interacts with other types of knowledge, and hence when teaching a new concept (such as advanced motion physics) teachers will be aware that they can draw upon schemas already in the mind (such as the basic ideas of Newton’s laws of motion). Schemas that have already been encoded also play a large part in attention and perception. As has already been described, schemas play a huge part in the construction of new knowledge. Schemas should therefore be of extreme importance to an educator, in that they need to activate and use prior knowledge (existing schemas) to build new knowledge. For instance, a mathematics teacher would never consider teaching the quadratic equation to someone who has no knowledge of basic algebra. It is obvious that to teach new ideas to students, that existing schemas need to be thought about, and built upon in order to build up the best knowledge base possible. It is also worth noting that if well-structured schemas are not built up, then this lack of good long-term knowledge will adversely affect how students learn new concepts further on in life.
As well as schema theory, educators also subscribe to other ways of describing how knowledge in structured in long-term memory. Educators have realised that students regularly organise information into categories, technically defined as concepts (Chi, Slotta and de Leeuw, 1994). These categories help students to relate one idea to the other and hence works like schema theory in that all information is linked. For instance, English students would categorise nouns, verbs and adjectives amongst other things. Implications for positive education are that teachers must realise this and help students to categorise information successfully so their cognition is well organised, well structured and correctly understood.

Simple encoding processes (which have already been discussed) are good for constructing knowledge bases about simple areas, however for new information to be best constructed, complex encoding processes must be understood.
As detailed before, existing schemas need to be activated in order for new information to be best understood, and for correct perception to occur. It is therefore likely that for correct and positive encoding to occur in complex situations, that the same technique should be utilised. This is called schema activation. Educators should be aware of the idea of schema activation as a process, and idea that can hugely influence learning. Educators can use the idea of schema activation in all areas of classroom teaching. A primary school teacher could draw on basic multiplication schemas and relate them to long multiplication ideas, which are just being introduced to students. These students would find it almost impossibly difficult to learn long multiplication if the prior schemas were not reactivated (if necessary). An educator can bring prior schemas back into the minds of students in many different ways. Mind-maps, videos, class discussions and reading texts are many of these ways, however as dictated by attention and perception the way in which prior knowledge is brought back should be unique and creative.

Deep processing is simply when a student processes information that results in further understanding. Deep processing can range from self-generated notes (which the student constructs themselves) to elaboration amongst students (where student’s discuss the new information). The prime advantages of using deep processing techniques are that they encourage information to be encoded in a unique manner. Educators should encourage students to engage in these unique activities (such as group study during the year) to ensure that the students are encoding in the best possible manner. Educators should also monitor the encoding techniques that student’s are using, and should attempt to match students up with good encoding techniques to ensure that the best encoding is taking place. For instance, a teacher should not encourage self-generated notes in mathematics where mistakes are likely to be made, but should encourage it in history where these mistakes are likely to be less influential.

Encoding specificity (Tulving & Ulser, 1968) conducted tests that dictated that wherever possible, conditions at the time/place of encoding should be similar to that found where retrieval takes place.
Guided peer questioning is another process involved with learning that can greatly affect how things are remembered. The simple example of a student asking a teacher, or a group of students how something works (i.e. the student gives their own opinion) can often greatly enhance how much of the subject is remembered, as the encoding will often be more unique and memorable to the student.

Educators must be aware of the differences between recognition and recall questions, and their implications on the learning process. Recall questions are in the form of “Explain how the Haber process works”, whereas recognition questions are in the form of “Does the Haber process synthesize ammonia?” Educators can find use in this knowledge when teaching. If the educator is aware of the type of question that can be found in an exam, then they can teach their student’s accordingly. This is why English teachers tend to teach differently to science teachers, as the type of questioning that will be found in an exam is vastly different to the other.
Teachers should be aware that if they do not teach the students the information properly, even if the right type of questioning does come up, the recall/recognition would be very poor. Teachers must also be aware that even in the best of circumstances, retrieval can fail (Bruning et al., 2005, p. 108). Reasons for this seem to lie in poor encoding, and hence the importance of good encoding processes is emphasised in this point.

The processes and systems of human cognitive architecture are studied by educators extensively due to their obvious importance to the field of education. Knowledge of processes such as encoding and retrieval are just as important as knowledge of architectural components such as sensory or working memory, yet both are studied by teachers due to their overwhelming importance in improving classroom practise. Each field of educational psychology allows teachers to understand how information is going through the minds of their students, and once this knowledge is acquired, the knowledge can be applied to the learning process of students. If teachers did not have knowledge of these fields, chances are that education would not be anywhere near the level that it is at today and classroom practise would be extremely primitive.


A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Yep.

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WWEFootos48
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God
See? Neb telled 'em!
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Cybrus
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STAY HYPED!!!
:blah:
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MY85
It's a fabulous new day, yes it is!
Cybrus
Dec 4 2006, 03:22 PM
DX circa 2006 have had their good moments, but by and large I think the group is about as exiting as the idea of having a root canal without novacaine.

Exiting??
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_DL_
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BURN IT DOOOWWNNNNNNNN!
I knew the guy in your sig was on Food Network from the beginning, my mom watches the channel, and he was always on there. But his name escapes me.
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WWEFootos48
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God
Just out of curiosity, who are the people in my sig?
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Ashy Shaq
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The Silver Standard
WWEWhoseLine48
Dec 4 2006, 05:17 PM
Just out of curiosity, who are the people in my sig?

HBK, Shelton Benjamin, and Christian Cage or Sabu I'm gussing.
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WWEFootos48
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God
Quote:
 
HBK


Correct.

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Shelton Benjamin


Correct.

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Christian Cage or Sabu


Wrong.
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15 Shows
Aint cheatin aint tryin
It's obviously A.J Styles.
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Nubochanozep
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15 Shows
Dec 5 2006, 09:05 AM
Of course not. Let me explain:

A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Once stimuli make there way from working memory to long-term memory, they have been successfully encoded into long-term memory. Having an understanding of different types of knowledge is useful for a teacher but it plays a small part in the much larger idea of how long term memories are structured and organised within the mind. Educational psychologists currently subscribe to the idea of schema theory when explaining the structure of long-term memory.
Schema theory simply states that knowledge is organised into what could be thought of as a spider web (www.sil.org). Different types of knowledge are organised into different spots of a spider’s web, and these different knowledge modules all interact and connect with one another so that knowledge can be used with maximum efficiency. This theory has positive classroom effects in that educators can sympathise with how knowledge is structured in the mind. With this knowledge, educators can arrange classes to be structured in a neat and organised fashion that will allow for the neatest and most logical organisation of schemas. Educators can also be aware that each type of knowledge interacts with other types of knowledge, and hence when teaching a new concept (such as advanced motion physics) teachers will be aware that they can draw upon schemas already in the mind (such as the basic ideas of Newton’s laws of motion). Schemas that have already been encoded also play a large part in attention and perception. As has already been described, schemas play a huge part in the construction of new knowledge. Schemas should therefore be of extreme importance to an educator, in that they need to activate and use prior knowledge (existing schemas) to build new knowledge. For instance, a mathematics teacher would never consider teaching the quadratic equation to someone who has no knowledge of basic algebra. It is obvious that to teach new ideas to students, that existing schemas need to be thought about, and built upon in order to build up the best knowledge base possible. It is also worth noting that if well-structured schemas are not built up, then this lack of good long-term knowledge will adversely affect how students learn new concepts further on in life.
As well as schema theory, educators also subscribe to other ways of describing how knowledge in structured in long-term memory. Educators have realised that students regularly organise information into categories, technically defined as concepts (Chi, Slotta and de Leeuw, 1994). These categories help students to relate one idea to the other and hence works like schema theory in that all information is linked. For instance, English students would categorise nouns, verbs and adjectives amongst other things. Implications for positive education are that teachers must realise this and help students to categorise information successfully so their cognition is well organised, well structured and correctly understood.

Simple encoding processes (which have already been discussed) are good for constructing knowledge bases about simple areas, however for new information to be best constructed, complex encoding processes must be understood.
As detailed before, existing schemas need to be activated in order for new information to be best understood, and for correct perception to occur. It is therefore likely that for correct and positive encoding to occur in complex situations, that the same technique should be utilised. This is called schema activation. Educators should be aware of the idea of schema activation as a process, and idea that can hugely influence learning. Educators can use the idea of schema activation in all areas of classroom teaching. A primary school teacher could draw on basic multiplication schemas and relate them to long multiplication ideas, which are just being introduced to students. These students would find it almost impossibly difficult to learn long multiplication if the prior schemas were not reactivated (if necessary). An educator can bring prior schemas back into the minds of students in many different ways. Mind-maps, videos, class discussions and reading texts are many of these ways, however as dictated by attention and perception the way in which prior knowledge is brought back should be unique and creative.

Deep processing is simply when a student processes information that results in further understanding. Deep processing can range from self-generated notes (which the student constructs themselves) to elaboration amongst students (where student’s discuss the new information). The prime advantages of using deep processing techniques are that they encourage information to be encoded in a unique manner. Educators should encourage students to engage in these unique activities (such as group study during the year) to ensure that the students are encoding in the best possible manner. Educators should also monitor the encoding techniques that student’s are using, and should attempt to match students up with good encoding techniques to ensure that the best encoding is taking place. For instance, a teacher should not encourage self-generated notes in mathematics where mistakes are likely to be made, but should encourage it in history where these mistakes are likely to be less influential.

Encoding specificity (Tulving & Ulser, 1968) conducted tests that dictated that wherever possible, conditions at the time/place of encoding should be similar to that found where retrieval takes place.
Guided peer questioning is another process involved with learning that can greatly affect how things are remembered. The simple example of a student asking a teacher, or a group of students how something works (i.e. the student gives their own opinion) can often greatly enhance how much of the subject is remembered, as the encoding will often be more unique and memorable to the student.

Educators must be aware of the differences between recognition and recall questions, and their implications on the learning process. Recall questions are in the form of “Explain how the Haber process works”, whereas recognition questions are in the form of “Does the Haber process synthesize ammonia?” Educators can find use in this knowledge when teaching. If the educator is aware of the type of question that can be found in an exam, then they can teach their student’s accordingly. This is why English teachers tend to teach differently to science teachers, as the type of questioning that will be found in an exam is vastly different to the other.
Teachers should be aware that if they do not teach the students the information properly, even if the right type of questioning does come up, the recall/recognition would be very poor. Teachers must also be aware that even in the best of circumstances, retrieval can fail (Bruning et al., 2005, p. 108). Reasons for this seem to lie in poor encoding, and hence the importance of good encoding processes is emphasised in this point.

The processes and systems of human cognitive architecture are studied by educators extensively due to their obvious importance to the field of education. Knowledge of processes such as encoding and retrieval are just as important as knowledge of architectural components such as sensory or working memory, yet both are studied by teachers due to their overwhelming importance in improving classroom practise. Each field of educational psychology allows teachers to understand how information is going through the minds of their students, and once this knowledge is acquired, the knowledge can be applied to the learning process of students. If teachers did not have knowledge of these fields, chances are that education would not be anywhere near the level that it is at today and classroom practise would be extremely primitive.


A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Once stimuli make there way from working memory to long-term memory, they have been successfully encoded into long-term memory. Having an understanding of different types of knowledge is useful for a teacher but it plays a small part in the much larger idea of how long term memories are structured and organised within the mind. Educational psychologists currently subscribe to the idea of schema theory when explaining the structure of long-term memory.
Schema theory simply states that knowledge is organised into what could be thought of as a spider web (www.sil.org). Different types of knowledge are organised into different spots of a spider’s web, and these different knowledge modules all interact and connect with one another so that knowledge can be used with maximum efficiency. This theory has positive classroom effects in that educators can sympathise with how knowledge is structured in the mind. With this knowledge, educators can arrange classes to be structured in a neat and organised fashion that will allow for the neatest and most logical organisation of schemas. Educators can also be aware that each type of knowledge interacts with other types of knowledge, and hence when teaching a new concept (such as advanced motion physics) teachers will be aware that they can draw upon schemas already in the mind (such as the basic ideas of Newton’s laws of motion). Schemas that have already been encoded also play a large part in attention and perception. As has already been described, schemas play a huge part in the construction of new knowledge. Schemas should therefore be of extreme importance to an educator, in that they need to activate and use prior knowledge (existing schemas) to build new knowledge. For instance, a mathematics teacher would never consider teaching the quadratic equation to someone who has no knowledge of basic algebra. It is obvious that to teach new ideas to students, that existing schemas need to be thought about, and built upon in order to build up the best knowledge base possible. It is also worth noting that if well-structured schemas are not built up, then this lack of good long-term knowledge will adversely affect how students learn new concepts further on in life.
As well as schema theory, educators also subscribe to other ways of describing how knowledge in structured in long-term memory. Educators have realised that students regularly organise information into categories, technically defined as concepts (Chi, Slotta and de Leeuw, 1994). These categories help students to relate one idea to the other and hence works like schema theory in that all information is linked. For instance, English students would categorise nouns, verbs and adjectives amongst other things. Implications for positive education are that teachers must realise this and help students to categorise information successfully so their cognition is well organised, well structured and correctly understood.

Simple encoding processes (which have already been discussed) are good for constructing knowledge bases about simple areas, however for new information to be best constructed, complex encoding processes must be understood.
As detailed before, existing schemas need to be activated in order for new information to be best understood, and for correct perception to occur. It is therefore likely that for correct and positive encoding to occur in complex situations, that the same technique should be utilised. This is called schema activation. Educators should be aware of the idea of schema activation as a process, and idea that can hugely influence learning. Educators can use the idea of schema activation in all areas of classroom teaching. A primary school teacher could draw on basic multiplication schemas and relate them to long multiplication ideas, which are just being introduced to students. These students would find it almost impossibly difficult to learn long multiplication if the prior schemas were not reactivated (if necessary). An educator can bring prior schemas back into the minds of students in many different ways. Mind-maps, videos, class discussions and reading texts are many of these ways, however as dictated by attention and perception the way in which prior knowledge is brought back should be unique and creative.

Deep processing is simply when a student processes information that results in further understanding. Deep processing can range from self-generated notes (which the student constructs themselves) to elaboration amongst students (where student’s discuss the new information). The prime advantages of using deep processing techniques are that they encourage information to be encoded in a unique manner. Educators should encourage students to engage in these unique activities (such as group study during the year) to ensure that the students are encoding in the best possible manner. Educators should also monitor the encoding techniques that student’s are using, and should attempt to match students up with good encoding techniques to ensure that the best encoding is taking place. For instance, a teacher should not encourage self-generated notes in mathematics where mistakes are likely to be made, but should encourage it in history where these mistakes are likely to be less influential.

Encoding specificity (Tulving & Ulser, 1968) conducted tests that dictated that wherever possible, conditions at the time/place of encoding should be similar to that found where retrieval takes place.
Guided peer questioning is another process involved with learning that can greatly affect how things are remembered. The simple example of a student asking a teacher, or a group of students how something works (i.e. the student gives their own opinion) can often greatly enhance how much of the subject is remembered, as the encoding will often be more unique and memorable to the student.

Educators must be aware of the differences between recognition and recall questions, and their implications on the learning process. Recall questions are in the form of “Explain how the Haber process works”, whereas recognition questions are in the form of “Does the Haber process synthesize ammonia?” Educators can find use in this knowledge when teaching. If the educator is aware of the type of question that can be found in an exam, then they can teach their student’s accordingly. This is why English teachers tend to teach differently to science teachers, as the type of questioning that will be found in an exam is vastly different to the other.
Teachers should be aware that if they do not teach the students the information properly, even if the right type of questioning does come up, the recall/recognition would be very poor. Teachers must also be aware that even in the best of circumstances, retrieval can fail (Bruning et al., 2005, p. 108). Reasons for this seem to lie in poor encoding, and hence the importance of good encoding processes is emphasised in this point.

The processes and systems of human cognitive architecture are studied by educators extensively due to their obvious importance to the field of education. Knowledge of processes such as encoding and retrieval are just as important as knowledge of architectural components such as sensory or working memory, yet both are studied by teachers due to their overwhelming importance in improving classroom practise. Each field of educational psychology allows teachers to understand how information is going through the minds of their students, and once this knowledge is acquired, the knowledge can be applied to the learning process of students. If teachers did not have knowledge of these fields, chances are that education would not be anywhere near the level that it is at today and classroom practise would be extremely primitive.


A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Once stimuli make there way from working memory to long-term memory, they have been successfully encoded into long-term memory. Having an understanding of different types of knowledge is useful for a teacher but it plays a small part in the much larger idea of how long term memories are structured and organised within the mind. Educational psychologists currently subscribe to the idea of schema theory when explaining the structure of long-term memory.
Schema theory simply states that knowledge is organised into what could be thought of as a spider web (www.sil.org). Different types of knowledge are organised into different spots of a spider’s web, and these different knowledge modules all interact and connect with one another so that knowledge can be used with maximum efficiency. This theory has positive classroom effects in that educators can sympathise with how knowledge is structured in the mind. With this knowledge, educators can arrange classes to be structured in a neat and organised fashion that will allow for the neatest and most logical organisation of schemas. Educators can also be aware that each type of knowledge interacts with other types of knowledge, and hence when teaching a new concept (such as advanced motion physics) teachers will be aware that they can draw upon schemas already in the mind (such as the basic ideas of Newton’s laws of motion). Schemas that have already been encoded also play a large part in attention and perception. As has already been described, schemas play a huge part in the construction of new knowledge. Schemas should therefore be of extreme importance to an educator, in that they need to activate and use prior knowledge (existing schemas) to build new knowledge. For instance, a mathematics teacher would never consider teaching the quadratic equation to someone who has no knowledge of basic algebra. It is obvious that to teach new ideas to students, that existing schemas need to be thought about, and built upon in order to build up the best knowledge base possible. It is also worth noting that if well-structured schemas are not built up, then this lack of good long-term knowledge will adversely affect how students learn new concepts further on in life.
As well as schema theory, educators also subscribe to other ways of describing how knowledge in structured in long-term memory. Educators have realised that students regularly organise information into categories, technically defined as concepts (Chi, Slotta and de Leeuw, 1994). These categories help students to relate one idea to the other and hence works like schema theory in that all information is linked. For instance, English students would categorise nouns, verbs and adjectives amongst other things. Implications for positive education are that teachers must realise this and help students to categorise information successfully so their cognition is well organised, well structured and correctly understood.

Simple encoding processes (which have already been discussed) are good for constructing knowledge bases about simple areas, however for new information to be best constructed, complex encoding processes must be understood.
As detailed before, existing schemas need to be activated in order for new information to be best understood, and for correct perception to occur. It is therefore likely that for correct and positive encoding to occur in complex situations, that the same technique should be utilised. This is called schema activation. Educators should be aware of the idea of schema activation as a process, and idea that can hugely influence learning. Educators can use the idea of schema activation in all areas of classroom teaching. A primary school teacher could draw on basic multiplication schemas and relate them to long multiplication ideas, which are just being introduced to students. These students would find it almost impossibly difficult to learn long multiplication if the prior schemas were not reactivated (if necessary). An educator can bring prior schemas back into the minds of students in many different ways. Mind-maps, videos, class discussions and reading texts are many of these ways, however as dictated by attention and perception the way in which prior knowledge is brought back should be unique and creative.

Deep processing is simply when a student processes information that results in further understanding. Deep processing can range from self-generated notes (which the student constructs themselves) to elaboration amongst students (where student’s discuss the new information). The prime advantages of using deep processing techniques are that they encourage information to be encoded in a unique manner. Educators should encourage students to engage in these unique activities (such as group study during the year) to ensure that the students are encoding in the best possible manner. Educators should also monitor the encoding techniques that student’s are using, and should attempt to match students up with good encoding techniques to ensure that the best encoding is taking place. For instance, a teacher should not encourage self-generated notes in mathematics where mistakes are likely to be made, but should encourage it in history where these mistakes are likely to be less influential.

Encoding specificity (Tulving & Ulser, 1968) conducted tests that dictated that wherever possible, conditions at the time/place of encoding should be similar to that found where retrieval takes place.
Guided peer questioning is another process involved with learning that can greatly affect how things are remembered. The simple example of a student asking a teacher, or a group of students how something works (i.e. the student gives their own opinion) can often greatly enhance how much of the subject is remembered, as the encoding will often be more unique and memorable to the student.

Educators must be aware of the differences between recognition and recall questions, and their implications on the learning process. Recall questions are in the form of “Explain how the Haber process works”, whereas recognition questions are in the form of “Does the Haber process synthesize ammonia?” Educators can find use in this knowledge when teaching. If the educator is aware of the type of question that can be found in an exam, then they can teach their student’s accordingly. This is why English teachers tend to teach differently to science teachers, as the type of questioning that will be found in an exam is vastly different to the other.
Teachers should be aware that if they do not teach the students the information properly, even if the right type of questioning does come up, the recall/recognition would be very poor. Teachers must also be aware that even in the best of circumstances, retrieval can fail (Bruning et al., 2005, p. 108). Reasons for this seem to lie in poor encoding, and hence the importance of good encoding processes is emphasised in this point.

The processes and systems of human cognitive architecture are studied by educators extensively due to their obvious importance to the field of education. Knowledge of processes such as encoding and retrieval are just as important as knowledge of architectural components such as sensory or working memory, yet both are studied by teachers due to their overwhelming importance in improving classroom practise. Each field of educational psychology allows teachers to understand how information is going through the minds of their students, and once this knowledge is acquired, the knowledge can be applied to the learning process of students. If teachers did not have knowledge of these fields, chances are that education would not be anywhere near the level that it is at today and classroom practise would be extremely primitive.


A teacher must have a high level of knowledge in certain fields of educational psychology to be an effective teacher. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the processes involved with learning are fields that require a high level of expertise. If a teacher is knowledgeable within these fields, their classroom practise will be better developed than a teacher who is not knowledgeable within these fields. Evidence of this can be found in schools all over the world, with the best teachers utilising their knowledge enabling their students learn to the best of their abilities.


Perhaps the most important aspect of human cognitive architecture is the idea of the modal model. This model integrates all systems within human cognitive architecture into a neat, functional system that helps teacher’s understand how stimuli are processed in the mind. This knowledge is invaluable to an educator, and allows for the smaller components of a student’s cognitive architecture to be better understood.



The first stage within the modal model and the first stage that new information entering the mind must go through, is the module known as sensory memory. Sensory memory acts as the gateway through which all new information must progress. It has two “registers” (Bruning et al, 2005, p.19): The Icon, and the Echo.
Both the icon and echo are extremely limited in their function. The work of George Sperling (1960) defined that the icon (the visual register) can store information for only 0.5 seconds before it decays. The work of Darwin, Turvey and Crowder defined that the echo (the audio register) can only store information for up to 4 seconds before it decays.
There are several implications for positive classroom practise in the module of sensory memory, in that it defines that information that enters the mind is subject to decay unless it is transferred to working memory almost immediately (as seen in the decay times). Teachers must therefore attempt to ensure that incoming stimuli is transferred to working memory immediately, or in better words; to make sure that the information is perceived well enough and that the student’s attention is sufficiently high.

Information coming toward the gateways that are the icon and echo is subject to the learner’s perception and attention. In other words, information will not progress toward working memory unless correct perception occurs whilst the student is paying attention.
Perception is said to be the assignment of meaning to an incoming stimuli. Hence, for correct perception to occur, the appropriate prior knowledge (schemas) must be activated. The new stimuli must be unique, creative and interesting toward a student for the best attention and perception to occur. In classroom practise, this could be applied by providing prior knowledge materials (such as posters and videos) to students before learning a new concept. Teachers could also attempt to make a new topic interesting by making the new stimulus unique and exciting, so that maximum perception and attention occurs.
Automaticity (Neisser 1967) is another important concept for teachers in that it defines that if a student gains enough expertise in a field, then they will requires less cognitive resources to do the task. This is turn means less attention and perception will be required to perform a task. Automaticity can only be developed through extensive practise, and thus teachers should aim to develop automaticity in students so that the students can allocate their cognitive resources to other areas.

Knowledge of working memory is vital for an educator as it is in this step that the processing and deep meaning construction takes place.
A very important concept for educators to come to terms with is that working memory is limited to processing 7 ± 2 pieces (chunks) of information at a time (Miller, 1956). In order for students to cope with this, educators must teach them concepts to overcome the limitations of working memory. For instance, a maths teacher could teach the quadratic formula to a group of students in little fragments, rather than getting them to remember the formula letter for letter, symbol for symbol. This means that the teacher has helped the students to chunk the information, hence working memory can better cope with this information.
Information within working memory is stored within two areas, the articulatory loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley, 1986). This is of importance to teachers, due to the work of researchers such as Mousavi, Low and Sweller. (1995). Mousavi et al. said that because information within working memory is processed separately in the audio and visual areas, that it is wise to encode information in both formats. The implications for positive classroom practise are that information should be presented in both visual and audio formats (for instance drawings and descriptions).
Also of importance is that working memory has a limit on how long things can be remembered for (~9-18 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1965)). Implications on educational practise are that teachers must compensate for this limit in working memory by storing information elsewhere, such as on paper. A chemistry teacher for instance could give students a photocopy of the Haber process that they can practise (as it has so many elements) memorising until it is successfully encoded.

Stimuli will hardly ever be encoded to long-term memory straight away, and hence educators must ensure that information undergoes ongoing rehearsal to ensure that it is sufficiently encoded into long-term memory. An example of this taking place can be found when a primary school teacher encourages students to recite the multiplication tables over-and-over again verbally until they remember them fully. This is not the only form of ongoing rehearsal, someone learning a new concept will likely have to rehearse things repeatedly until it is encoded well enough. Educators must ensure that enough ongoing rehearsal takes place to ensure information is encoded.
When undertaking ongoing rehearsal (or any learning activity for that matter), one has to be aware of their own cognitive abilities. Knowledge of cognition is a form of metacognition where the student has knowledge of himself or herself as a learner. The relevance of this concerning ongoing rehearsal is that student’s should be made metacognitively aware (that is, aware of their own cognitive abilities) so that they can undertaker their most efficient form of ongoing rehearsal. For instance, a student that believes that they learn better whilst listening to music should do so; a student who believes they will work better on their own should do so. In those examples, a student is showing knowledge of themself as a learner. Hence, to positively influence classroom practise, teachers should make every effort they can to make their students metacognitively aware (if they are capable).

Encoding information is the process of bringing stimuli into the mind and storing it permanently in long-term memory.
Encoding simple information can be done using several straightforward techniques. These include Mediation, which involves making nonsensical information appear more meaningful (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67); Imagery, where concepts or ideas are represented in the mind as images; and Mnemonics where memory strategies are used to help remember ideas or concepts (Bruning et al. 2005, p.67).
Encoding complex information requires knowledge of the structure of long-term memory, which is part of human cognitive architecture.

Before discussing understanding the structure, educators must be familiar with the different types of knowledge within long-term memory. Declarative knowledge is the most well known type of knowledge and simply involves facts that can be semantic (declared facts like oxygen is a gas, or iron is a metal), or episodic (such as when a person’s friend died). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of procedures or processions in which to achieve something (such as an experiment method), and conditional knowledge involves where to use the two above types of knowledge. Educators must be aware of the types of knowledge, as they can couple different types of knowledge so that students can understand things to the best of their abilities.
For instance, when teaching a student about different rock types, a teacher would educate the student on things such as different types of rock (declarative knowledge), the different ways of identifying a rock type (procedural) and when to use such techniques (conditional). If teachers make students aware of all types of knowledge within this field, then the student will understand rock types more than a student who was only given declarative knowledge.

Yep.

I found that comment to be quite hilarious. :lol:
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SRP76
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The Man. Any Questions?
In today's lesson, 15 Shows learned how to copy-and-paste...

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Nubochanozep
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You said it sir.
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SRP76
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The Man. Any Questions?
I borrowed The Stand from the library. I haven't started reading yet.

The damn book is the size of a van. I'm having trouble getting motivated enough to begin the task of reading all that.
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15 Shows
Aint cheatin aint tryin
SRP76
Dec 4 2006, 09:45 PM
In today's lesson, 15 Shows learned how to copy-and-paste...

Shows what you know. I already knew how to copy and paste.
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MY85
It's a fabulous new day, yes it is!
SRP76
Dec 4 2006, 09:45 PM
In today's lesson, 15 Shows learned how to copy-and-paste...

:lol:
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Nubochanozep
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Well I thought my assignment was interesting :(
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